Role of facilities management in ensuring guest service and satisfaction

Role of Facilities Management

In Ensuring Guest Service and Satisfaction

Designing, developing, launching and maintaining facilities as part of a strategic initiative to increase and sustain customer satisfaction is a foundational element of the customer experience area of facilities management. The many factors that are part of creating an effective facilities management strategy that promotes, nurtures and strengthens customer satisfaction is critical for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) services providers must be orchestrated around a positive and memorable customer experience (Hoots, 2005). Facilities management planning and execution must move beyond the utilitarian nature of just constructing a building to setting a foundation of transforming the customer experience. At the intersection of facilities management and customer relationship management is the development of businesses that deliver unique experiences over and above fulfilling their utilitarian roles in providing a structure to meet and transact in (Hoots, 2005). The facilities management strategies that are integral to strategic market planning are able to attain this level of integration and deliver transformational experiences for customers in the process. The intent of this analysis is to provide how facility designs positively and negatively affected a real-life experience. The positive experience was in a resort hotel designed specifically as a landing zone for tourists coming in from sandy beaches both via walkways and by driving up, and the negative experience was in an airline's exclusive terminal which was meant to streamline the boarding process for international flights. Ironically they never announced when flights were leaving and had no flat panel displays showing flight status. The terminal was a former commuter terminal with no running water and not enough power outlets for laptops or recharging devices before the long flights leaving from this location.

Facility Design and Management As A Strategic Asset: Embassy Suites

Waikiki Beach Walk

The design of this facility is excellent for handling a wide variety of guests, as the stairs lead directly to the shopping area of Waikiki, while the street access leads directly to a path to Waikiki Beach. What really separates this hotel from many others however is the location of the driveway relative to the rooms and the use of weather-resistant carpeting on the driveway itself. When guests who have rented cars drive up the driveway, they can step directly out of their cars after a visit to Oahu's beaches and walk down a separate hallway from the main lobby to an elevator. This is very convenient for families with children, as many times they have brought back a fair amount of sand and items from beach excursions around the island. The all-weather carpeting absorbs the sand from shoes, can easily absorb cup full of sand dropped by children, and is continually cleaned by the staff. The secondary elevator away from the main lobby also gives guests who are dressed informally and often covered in towels a quick path to their rooms without mixing with more formally dressed guests. There is also a small shop at the end of the hallway so guests can pick up items on their way out to local beaches or buy a snack of they are hungry after coming in from spending the day on the island.

In addition to all of these benefits, the elevator has a special series of codes and is key-operated so only guests can get up the elevator into the hotel itself. Clearly Embassy Suites has though through what families need most when getting back from visiting local beaches by car. First, a secure, weather-resistant hallway with all-weather carpeting that has enough traction on it so kids don't slip even when they are running with wet feet, and second, the privacy of quickly getting out of a rental car and to their hotel rooms to change was a deliberate design objective. Clearly this secondary entrance was designed to keep noise out of the more formal lobby area, which works out extremely well for parents, many of whom are wearing beach towels over their swim suits, would rather not walk through a fancy lobby.

The design of this hotel is oriented towards providing areas for parents with kids to enjoy themselves while also giving enough private space to those visiting as couples or alone to also enjoy themselves. And it is done without a level of arrogance or exclusivity; the egalitarian design of the hotels' common spaces, from the two lobbies to the design of the buffet area, are all oriented towards these goals. The result is that the common spaces blend extremely well together and families with kids have a chance to enjoy their vacations while couples and those traveling alone can also enjoy the facilities as well.

The facility manager can continually strive to provide this "separateness" in the design of the hotels' open spaces by differentiating areas by the use of colors, fabrics, carpeting and traffic flows. It is very evident just on these cues what areas of the hotel you are in at any time. The subdued reed separation walls and thicker coaches are for the couples and adults traveling together. They are separated from the sturdy plastic tables and chairs for children and families. Overall this hotel does a brilliant job of using facilities management to accentuate the customer experience.

United Airlines Business Class Lounge at Los Angeles International Airport, Bradley Terminal